'A MOST UNENVIABLE REPUTATION' THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND SCHOOL DISCIPLINE OVER TWO CENTURIES Barry M. Coldrey PH.D. Tamanariak Publishing, 974 Canterbury Road, BOX HILL. VIC. 3128. The Christian Brothers and School Discipline over Two Centuries Coldrey, B.M. 1939 - ISBN 1 875258 53 1 • 1W1 • Price: $9.95 PRODUCTION: Louise Ellis Secretarial Service 34 Renwick Street, Glen Iris. Vic. 3146. 8895534 CONTENTS PAGE NO. l. The Brothers Reputation 2. Edmund Rice and School Discipline 2 3. The First Generation of Brothers 4 4. Nineteenth Century School Discipline 7 5. Brothers Increasing Severity 8 6. Brothers Discipline : Literature 13 7. Discipline: Industrial Schools and Orphanages 17 8. Irish Intermediate Examination System 19 9. Executive Attitudes to Discipline 10. Theory and Reality THE BROTHERS REPUTATION A delegate to the 1947 General Chapter 1 of the Christian Brothers Institute prefaced his remarks on the topic 'Discipline in the schools' be referring to the ' most unenviable reputation' which the Congregation had acquired in its use of corporal punishment. On the question of reputation he was correct. Every novel. memoir, autobiography or oral reflection which makes reference to the Brothers refers to their fearsome discipline in the classroom. 'Irish Christian Brothers' should be rephrased 'lntemational Child Beaters' according to one humorist. Certainly most Christian Brothers have used corporal punishment in their classrooms over the last two hundred years. However. the Brothers were hardly unique educators in this regard. Yet. the image of the Institute Is that its members were quite unusually and exceptionally severe. more unrestrained than teachers in general. more uncontrolled than members of other Religious Institutes serving the Catholic people. This paper will examine the issue to see where the truth lies in the images which surround the Brothers, and if their unique severity turns to be a myth, it will attempt to locate the source or origins of the myth. The words 'Institute", 'Order' and 'Congregation' are used Interchangeably when reference Is made to the Christian Brothers as an organisation. The term ~General Chapter' refers- from footnote 1 to the sexennlal meeting of elected delegates from Brothers around the world to discuss the progress and policy of the Congregation and to make appointments. 2 EDMUND RICE AND SCHOOL DISCIPUNE When Edmund Rice, a retired businessman, founded the Institute, in Waterford, Ireland, in 1802, the Monitoral System of schooling was in vogue for educating the children of the poor. Throughout Europe, education at this time was neither compulsory, nor free, nor secular. With the Monitorial System, one trained teacher could organise the instruction of upwards of 150 pupils in one large room, with the assistance of senior pupils as teaching monitors. In effect, the master taught the monitors, 24 of them In an average room. and the monitors taught the classes of less advanced pupils. Each room was called a "school". the "class" was the five to ten younger pupils Instructed by a monitor. The curriculum focussed on the "4 Rs"- with Religion given a prominent place. the objective was basic literacy and numeracy.2 In the first extant outline of his system of education. Rice emphasized a mild, compassionate approach to teaching and children. He wrote: 'Unless for some faults which rarely occur. whipping is never inflicted.' 3 Such an attitude placed him well in advance of contemporary school discipline standards. Indeed, Rice and the first generation of Brothers had given much attention to the twin problems of organisation and control of pupils. Considering the large numbers of pupils In each room, pupils from every class in society except the very rich combined with the complicated manoeuvrings of the Monitorial System, this emphasis on discipline is understandable. 4 2 The early part of this paper Is informed by the following - from footnote 2 work which is not well known outside the Institute. viz. Gillespie, W.L. The Christian Brothers in England. 1825=1880, Burleigh Press. Bristol, 1975, pp. 30 ff 3 Normoyle, M.C. A Companion to 'A Tree Is Planted': the Correspondence of Edmund Rice and his Assistants. 1810-1842. Privately Printed, Rome. 1977, p.3 4 Kent, J.E. "The Educational Ideas of Edmund Rice, Founder of the Presentation and Christian Brothers'. Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis, University College, Cork, 1988, p.90. 3 The Manual of School Government 5 contains large sections on the various ways of correcting different kinds of pupils. Considerable use is made of prizes to encourage good behaviour and the general attitude to discipline, by the standards of Victorian England. is remarkably free of harshness. A Brother is expected to be a person who works for love and who evokes love: The more affection and kindness appear In his advlces and remonstrances. the more they (the pupils) will profit by them. 6 The school room was to be a place of silence. The Brothers were trained to speak little and in a quiet voice. As far as possible they gave directions by signs rather than by words. At the same time the pupils were expected to leam most of their subjects by speaking rather than listening and the learning noise from the various classes was a matter of delicate control. The Monitorial System encouraged 'mechanical discipline' with military overtones. 7 A good example of military-type discipline used in a Brothers' school of the mid- nineteenth century is provided by a newspaper account of Br. J. Maher in action. St. Patricks' School. Liverpool, 1843: 5 The Manual of School Govemment. Dublin. 1832. pp. 13-15; 178 -179; 187-204. See also: Rules and Constitutions of the Society of Religious Brothers. Dublin. 1832, Chapter 7. 6 Manugl. p. 201 7 Sullivan. J.J. 'The Education of the Irish Catholics. 1782-1831', Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Queen's University, Belfast, pp. 232-3. 4 On entering the school... the boy.s were ordered to make a bow, an act which was done with great unlfonnlfy. Ihen, at a given signal, made a 'click' from a smaillnstrument which the master held In his hand, the boy.s ranged themselves around the room. At another 'click' and with almost military precision they fumed around to show that their clothes were clean also, and at another signal they were a/lin an Instant upon the forms. 8 The Monitorial System demanded a military discipline for its efficient use but in the Brothers' case seems to hove dispensed with the harsher corporal punishments. Rice and the first generation of Brothers, recruited from the small Catholic middle class, rejected to a large degree the floggings and general ill-treatment of minors which was the contemporary norm. In the earliest outline of his educational system which survives he had written: "Unless for some very serious fault, which rarely occurs. corporal punishment Is not allowed.' 9 THE FIRST GENERATION OF BROTHERS By the 1820's the Irish Brothers were in touch with the headquarters of the French Brothers of the Christian Schools In Paris. It was from this source that they received two important disciplinary instruments - the wooden signal and the leather strap. This leather slapper- '13 inches long, 1.25 wide and .25 thick'- used only on the hand, was a mild instrument of discipline, in terms of contemporary schools in the British isles. l O 8 Uverpool Joumql, 28 January 1843, p.4. 9 Rice to Archbishop of Cashel. 9 May 1810. Archives of the Christian Brothers, VIa della Moglianella, 375, Roma 00166ltaly; hereafter cited as Generolate Archives. 10 Minutes of General Chapters. 1841 , No.5, Generalate Archives. 5 In fact, use of the strap hardly qualified as corporal punishment at that time. Brother A. Dunphy wrote to the La Salle Brothers' Superior-General in 1826: The youth of this country are already deeply Indebted to you. We have, from your example, banished all corporal punishment from our schools. Other masters are beginning to take the hint from us. I assure you, you have done no small good, even In the example you have given us In this. 11 In addition, the use of the strap was carefully regulated - it was not to be given on a boy's writing hand and was normally to be one slap only. The official attitude of the Brothers to its regular use was very unfavourable: Blows are a serville form of chastisement and degrade the soul. 1he ordinarily harden rather than correct. and blunt those fine feelings which render a rational creature sensible to shame. If a master be silent, vigilant. even and reserved In his manner and conduct. he need seldom have recourse to this sort of correction. 12 The early Christian Brothers, as an association, took a firm standard against severe corporal punishment. In the nineteenth century, British Royal Commissions on education praised them as good disciplinarians, but never faulted them tor harshness. On the contrary, it was remarked, with some astonishment, that despite the size of the classes 'the children are kept in good order and the masters seldom have recourse to corporal punishment.' 13 That was in 1825. 11 Dunphy to Superior-General, La Salle Brothers, 28 July 1826, De La Salle Archives, Via Aurelia, 476, Rome, 00165. 12 Manual, p. 193. 13 First Report, ... Irish Education EnquiN. H.C. 18825 (400). xii, p. 85 6 In 1857 Br. B. Duggan was examined before the Endowed Schools Commission in Cork. He admitted that corporal punishment had not been abolished but claimed that it was used only sparingly: ' ...... my own opinion about It is that fNe or six boys receiving one slap on the hand in the day is quite sufficient to keep the school in order.· Duggan claimed categorically that boys were never flogged at the school.